I have a weird problem. My sister drives a 1998 Ford Explorer Limited Edition with a V6 engine and auto trans. About a month ago the electrical system has been acting up. She turns the key and nothing turns on as if the battery is dead. I jump it and it starts up and all is fine at the time. We have the battery and alternated tested which came back as OK. The vehicle worked fine for about a week then last night my sis opens the door and the lights come on inside bright as can be, turns the key and everything shuts off completely again.
If the battery and alternator come back as OK, I can only guess there is a short somewhere. Now I do know her ignition switch is worn badly cause without the key she can still turn it enough to throw it out of lock. Not sure if she can turn it without the key past though but she showed me how worn out it was. Could that be causing the problems?
She is having a hard time right now with losing her job and having 2 kids so having a shop taking a look at it right now is nearly impossible. I work on my 82 S10 but this explorer is a different beast and electrical is not my strong point on vehicles. So thought maybe someone have had this problem before that can give some insight or throw me in a good direction to try to find the cause.
Thanks everyone for your time! the problem shes having with the ignition switch sounds more to me like a problem with the lock cylinder then the actual switch. and that shouldnt cause the starting problem.
we cant rule out the switch at this point, but if it starts with a jump evry time it acts up, the first thing id suspect is a problem with the battery cables or connections. take the cables off of the battery and use a small wire brush or fine grit sandpaper to clean the battery posts and the inside of the cable ends til there shiny. when u put them back on be sure that u get a good tight connection. make sure the connections at the other end of the cables are clean and tight allso.
look at the cable ends where they connect to the cable. if it looks like corosion is getting under the insulation, especialy if theres exposed wire that looks rusty and degraded, theres a good chance that too much resistance in the wire is causing intermittent starting trouble.
another easy thing u can do when it wont start, is to bang on the starter motor a few times with a hammer, while someone holds the key in the start position. if it cranks then, the starter is bad.
if that dont solve it let us know and we can take a look at some other things. I'll check the battery cables when I go by her house today. I know the starter is good only because when the car wont start its because the whole wiring harness completely loses power. She has interior lighting when she gets in but as soon as she hits the key all power cuts off so lights, ignition, everything is dead. I'll let ya know how it goes with the cables. Well today I have looked at my sister's Explorer. I got 4 days off from work and between my two sisters I never got to just relax one day haha! Oh well, there is always Christmas
I forgot that when she had the battery and alternator tested that it was okay but the guy did mention there was 1 amp being pulled somewhere even with the vehicle turned off. So that is our short. Well there was a wire that used to be connected to the positive side post that the previous owners had added. It had pulled from the spade connector a while back my sis informed me. So I went ahead and removed the spade then traced the wire back.
The wire was from a trailer tail light convertor. Since the newer connectors are circular and the old ones (like on my truck) are slim rectangular. So someone wired the truck up with that convertor instead of just updating the trailer. I pulled the box and connected all the tail lights back to original. My sister had to get a jump start in the morning but she hit the key and it started up fine and I had her go through hitting the brakes, turning the lights on, turn signals, etc. Everything worked fine.
We took the Explorer to autozone and got another test done on the battery and everything came back okay again and I asked, Car Repair Talk's forum.
If the battery and alternator come back as OK, I can only guess there is a short somewhere. Now I do know her ignition switch is worn badly cause without the key she can still turn it enough to throw it out of lock. Not sure if she can turn it without the key past though but she showed me how worn out it was. Could that be causing the problems?
She is having a hard time right now with losing her job and having 2 kids so having a shop taking a look at it right now is nearly impossible. I work on my 82 S10 but this explorer is a different beast and electrical is not my strong point on vehicles. So thought maybe someone have had this problem before that can give some insight or throw me in a good direction to try to find the cause.
Thanks everyone for your time! the problem shes having with the ignition switch sounds more to me like a problem with the lock cylinder then the actual switch. and that shouldnt cause the starting problem.
we cant rule out the switch at this point, but if it starts with a jump evry time it acts up, the first thing id suspect is a problem with the battery cables or connections. take the cables off of the battery and use a small wire brush or fine grit sandpaper to clean the battery posts and the inside of the cable ends til there shiny. when u put them back on be sure that u get a good tight connection. make sure the connections at the other end of the cables are clean and tight allso.
look at the cable ends where they connect to the cable. if it looks like corosion is getting under the insulation, especialy if theres exposed wire that looks rusty and degraded, theres a good chance that too much resistance in the wire is causing intermittent starting trouble.
another easy thing u can do when it wont start, is to bang on the starter motor a few times with a hammer, while someone holds the key in the start position. if it cranks then, the starter is bad.
if that dont solve it let us know and we can take a look at some other things. I'll check the battery cables when I go by her house today. I know the starter is good only because when the car wont start its because the whole wiring harness completely loses power. She has interior lighting when she gets in but as soon as she hits the key all power cuts off so lights, ignition, everything is dead. I'll let ya know how it goes with the cables. Well today I have looked at my sister's Explorer. I got 4 days off from work and between my two sisters I never got to just relax one day haha! Oh well, there is always Christmas
I forgot that when she had the battery and alternator tested that it was okay but the guy did mention there was 1 amp being pulled somewhere even with the vehicle turned off. So that is our short. Well there was a wire that used to be connected to the positive side post that the previous owners had added. It had pulled from the spade connector a while back my sis informed me. So I went ahead and removed the spade then traced the wire back.
The wire was from a trailer tail light convertor. Since the newer connectors are circular and the old ones (like on my truck) are slim rectangular. So someone wired the truck up with that convertor instead of just updating the trailer. I pulled the box and connected all the tail lights back to original. My sister had to get a jump start in the morning but she hit the key and it started up fine and I had her go through hitting the brakes, turning the lights on, turn signals, etc. Everything worked fine.
We took the Explorer to autozone and got another test done on the battery and everything came back okay again and I asked, Car Repair Talk's forum.
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